The other day, someone emailed me to ask about the Madsen cargo bike and how it rode. This seems to be a common question since it’s hard to find a place to test-ride these bikes. So I thought I’d put together a little post about my experiences.

We have 2 cargo bikes in the household now, a Madsen (original version) with added electric assist motor, and a Surly Big Dummy with Xtracycle attachments, no longer electrified. I use them both to carry a couple of smallish children (age 4) as well as pick up groceries and do other local errands.

When we set up the bikes, we lived about 7 miles from town over terrain that was quite hilly. In that situation, having the electric assist was near critical in order to make riding with all that extra weight practical and (more importantly) enjoyable! But since then, we have moved to a place that is mostly flat for everyday riding, and we removed the electric assist from the Big Dummy to make it lighter and more nimble. Now, I find that I don’t “need” the assist to get around, however, I do still use it sometimes for speed (especially for getting through the timed stop-light series in downtown).

I’ve been using both bikes pretty regularly, and have found that they definitely have different advantages.

First the Big Dummy.

This is a solid-frame longtail bike with a long platform on the back and side-bags for your cargo.

The Big Dummy (This is not me, but you get the idea)

1. I love the way this bike rides. It’s fast, nimble, and feels very much like a bike of typical size. I can accelerate it from a stop quickly. It’s easy to pedal and keep moving at speed. Riding it is fun and easy, even with a load on the back. For my typical loads of ~100 lbs there’s no flexing in the frame, and while getting started is slower than an unloaded bike, once underway, we sail along smoothly.

The Madsen feels like a big bike. When I ride it without using the e-assist, it’s heavy to get started and feels a bit on the clunky side. The bike is not made for speed, and I find the top comfortable speed I can pedal with the provided gearing is about 18mph. This is OK, because faster than that, I start feeling a little uneasy with this design. It’s a good excuse to ride a little slower and smell the roses.

2. I also prefer the cargo/kid arrangement of this bike to the Madsen when picking up groceries or doing errands. The kids ride on the top. The cargo goes in the sides and they drape their legs over it. I can fit 3 canvas grocery bags on each side easily, and I tie the tops over the bags so nothing hangs out. By contrast, in the Madsen, everything goes in the bucket. This means the kids feet are on top of your groceries (eggs and all) and little hands have free access to everything you’ve just purchased.

On my first big shopping trip with the twins (then only 2) and the Madsen, I put the kids on one seat, and piled all the groceries in the bucket and up on the other seat. As we rode home, I saw little bits of lettuce being ripped off and thrown out of the bike. And when we finished our 20 minute ride home, we had 3 smashed bananas with little teeth marks in the sides (2-yr olds don’t know how to peel), and a couple of ripped up cracker boxes which they had attempted to open. Overall, this was not too bad. Just a couple of curious kids with access to a whole lot of snacks….

3. There’s a bit more flexibility in build with the Big Dummy, with different frame sizes and many different gearing options available. This works ok for us because my partner and I are only about 4 inches difference in height. So we can both comfortably ride the same frame size. It might not work as well for people of much different height.

Next the Madsen.

This is the bike with the bucket on the back that you can carry up to 4 children on bench seats (lovingly known among the children as “the bucket bike”.

The Madsen

1. This bike excels for the kid social and cooperative aspects. When we take this bike, the kids can face each other. They have hands free so they can eat snacks and no one has to hold onto someone else. They play games and chat away, point out things along our route, and sometimes even look at small books we get at the library. Occasionally, there are disagreements which require us to pull over (and sometimes remove a toy), but generally they get along pretty well.

By contrast, on the Big Dummy, there is usually an argument over who gets to sit in the front right off the bat. The person in front can hold onto the handlebars behind the seat. The person in back has to hold onto the person in front. Sometimes they don’t like holding onto each other, and this has caused numerous controversies of “she’s holding me too tight”, etc. This could probably be fixed with a more complicated seating arrangement system such as many have developed, but we like the flexibility of keeping it open.

2. The Madsen also offers some additional flexibility if you need to pick up an extra kid somewhere. We use it to transport friends who want to come over to play, when my older daughter wants to ride instead of take her own bike (or if it’s too far or too dangerous for her).

Interestingly, however, the Big Dummy actually is better for carrying small children’s bikes. So if the children want to ride on their own small bikes part way, or if they get tired, I can pick up the bike and the child on the Big Dummy. This is harder on the Madsen (although still possible) because you have to find a way to fit the bike into the bucket too. This works well with 12″ and 16″ wheel bikes. When you get to 20″ wheel, it’s harder to get the bike on the side in a stable position.

3. I LOVE the step through design of the Madsen. It’s far easier to get on and off this bike than the Big Dummy, where I have to get my leg up high over the frame bar. (this is improved some in the newer Big Dummy design – ours is from 2009).

4. The Kickstand on the Madsen rocks! It’s super wide, so when deployed it holds the whole bike up solidly. I can let go of the bike to lift kids in and out of the bucket, to load and unload, and never worry about it falling over. It’s also easy to deploy because there is no lifting of the front or back of the bike needed (unlike some double kickstands I’ve tried).

5. The “fun” possibilities with the bucket are many and varied. A bucket full of water and rubber duckies? Mobile ice and beer dispenser? Pirate ship? If you ride one of these around town, people will give you more ideas – it’s also a conversation starter. For quite some time, I was well known in our small town as the lady who rode that bike with the bucket on the back : )

Overall, which bike I take really seems to depend on what mood I’m in, what my errand is, and how many kids I have that day. We’re lucky to have both and have a choice. But if you think about how you will use the bike most often, I hope this will help you find which one fits your needs better.

What can you do with a cargo bike? How about deliver a christmas tree? You see those people with trees strapped to the top of their cars, but how many bikes did you see this year with trees strapped to them?

In this video, experience a little slice of life here in our hometown, Carrboro, NC, as Dave takes a Christmas Tree to the local gathering spot and gives it away. I love how when filming this video, little things happen here and there that just have “Carrboro” written all over them….

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

-Elise

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When I read comments on articles and such that are published about electric bikes, there are almost always one or two people who are extremely negative on the idea. They are often defensive of their road or bike path “turf” and seem personally offended that people would choose an electric bike. I even saw a post recently on a road bike forum, where the apparent roadie personally attacked some poor guy who happened to be riding an ebike slowly in the bike lane, apparently blocking said roadie’s progress and forcing him to go around.

Really – are these kinds of things necessary? We’re all riding bikes people, and that should be a good thing whether the bike is a road bike, mountain bike, cruiser, ancient falling apart bike, electric bike or whatever. If you’re a biker and offended by someone else riding a bike, doesn’t that strike you as a bit hypocritical?

I think that in many cases, these people are actually offended because they view biking as a physical challenge and take pride in being able to be up to the challenge. I think it’s awesome that people ride bikes for physical exercise, I mean, we could obviously use more physical exercise in our culture. And many of those people are in far better physical shape than I am – an accomplishment for sure.

But there are more uses for the bike than just a physical workout, and can we please get over that attitude?

Today, when I was riding my electric cargo bike, bucket full of kids, over my 6 mile hilly commute, my battery gave out (apparently because I forgot to charge it fully – oops). After finishing the commute sans batttery, here were my comments:

It’s not that this kind of bike ridding cannot be done without assistance (many, many people do it), it’s just that having a little help makes it easy, so I don’t have to be up for a huge workout every morning when I just want to get the kids to school and get myself to work. That’s when most people take the car – and if you drive, you get zero exercise (not to mention, you burn a bunch of fossil fuels and create a bunch of pollution).

If I had to do the huge workout every morning, I would think twice about it every morning, and many of those times I’d decide I was too tired, in too much of a hurry, or just plain feeling lazy that day. Adding the assist makes riding a no-brainer and easy to make into a habit. I really think of this bike more akin to a highly efficient, lightweight electric vehicle, which technically it is. It’s just an EV that you can also pedal.

So, if you’re one of those people that is somehow offended by ebikes, please reconsider the bigger picture here. Would you rather have that slow person in the bike lane be driving a car that’s passing you and polluting the air you are breathing? Or is there room for another biker on the road, even if they aren’t in it for the exercise?

In pursuit of a more congenial world…..

-Elise

Go By Bike is a daily video series that talks about how to be green by riding more and using your car less, including electric bikes, electric kits, cargo bikes, bike safety, and getting motivated to bike

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Replace your car with this load-carrying machine

If you’ve been thinking of going carfree, but have stuff or people to carry, then I’m sure you’ve been looking for options on how you can do that. An electric cargo bike is a great car-replacement vehicle for most of the trips we do to the store, to drop-off and pick-up children, to get to work and back, and to attend social outings. The cargo bike gives you the capacity to carry what you need, and the motor makes it so you don’t have to kill yourself pedaling the extra weight.

Your excuses for not biking will disappear with one of these babies! And you’ll be LOVING the $8,000* your saving a year by selling your second car!  (* According to edmonds.com, the average price of owning a car in the US is $8,000 a year, and that was calculated when gas was just $1.50 per gallon!).

In this video, I give a brief overview of the Electric Yuba Mundo, or E-Mundo. The Mundo is the “pick up” of the cargo biking world with 400lbs of cargo carrying capacity. The Cycle 9 electric mundo is designed to fit most people’s needs right out of the box. Unless you’ve got killer hills, this kit will transport you and your stuff wherever you want to go (if you DO have killer hills, ask about upgrading to our high torque version!).

Leave me your comments below!

And don’t forget to join our Facebook or Twitter communities for a great resource on lifestyle biking, sustainable transportation and electric info.

-Elise

Go By Bike is a daily video series that talks about how to be green by riding more and using your car less, including electric bikes, electric kits, cargo bikes, bike safety, and getting motivated to bike

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Electric bikes.

They’re the buzz word of the bike industry lately. Will 2010 be their year? or will they burn quickly as a fad and fade out as in the past? As a rider and dealer of electric bikes, I’ve watched the offerings grow from small, obscure companies, to today with a plethora of options, including major bike manufacturers jumping on the wagon. I have to say I’m pretty impressed by the offerings. Clearly the industry thinks these are going to be big and small and large companies alike are gambling big bucks on developing products and getting dealers to support them. Will they hit it big? I don’t know, but here are a few of my thoughts on the question.

My first ebike

I’ve been interested in electric bikes for many years. My first bike was a ZAP bike in the early 1990s that I shared with my significant other. It employed a roller that went against your tire to help propel you forward, and I used it to assist me on my 12 mile each-way commute across town. The roller system worked ok as long as the road was dry, and you stopped occasionally to adjust the pressure on the tire. The battery was a golf cart battery strapped to the rear rack, and if I spared it’s use to the hills only, it would last all the way to work and half way home before giving up the ghost. But it did provide just enough help for me conquer my commute, a large factor being the few extra minutes it saved me.
By contrast, today’s ebikes are so much better, they barely compare. With my current electric kit, I can easily ride 20 miles or more, keeping my speed at 15-20mph over hills, even with cargo! The kit works reliably rain or shine, and the battery is 3 times the capacity for the same size and weight as my original ZAP kit. But most importantly, the kit has allowed me to free myself from my car, addressing my concerns about peak oil, environmental degradation, and quality of life for me, my kids, and my community.

The oil problem

As bike commuters, we generally understand the benefits of biking versus driving. We know that biking is healthy for us. We know that driving uses lots of resources. We know that our resources are finite and our environment is being polluted. But when I really started looking into the numbers, I was shocked. You see, through a friend I learned about the problem of Peak Oil. Peak Oil is the concept that at some point the world will have reached the peak efficiency of oil extraction worldwide. That means that all the easily extracted oil will be used up, and the stuff that’s left will be more difficult, costly, and time consuming to extract. Many geologists argue persuasively that peak oil is at hand, but that we don’t realize it in the marketplace yet. And the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico just underscores that drilling for oil is risky and has lots of associated costs.

Once you dive into the consequences of a future of more expensive and declining supply of oil, all kinds of scary facts start popping out – oil is required for the production of plastics which are critical in the health care industry. It’s heavily embedded in the production and transport of our food supply. It’s used in the pharmecudical industry, and will be required to manufacture and deploy solar panels, wind turbines, busses, bicycles and all the other elements of an alternative energy future.
Yet, here we are, burning up oil by driving around. Over 60% of the US oil supply goes to transportation, much of it personal and short distance. The internal combustion engine uses only 20% of the energy contained in gasoline while the rest is wasted in inefficiencies. And most of the energy consumed in driving is to propel the car – a big, heavy, metal box – not us or our stuff.
Clearly, we need to change our paradigm about transportation if we’re going to have an effect on this problem. And the sooner we can do that, the better off all of us will be. Once I realized this, I thought the best place to start would be with myself. I’ve always been a casual biker, recreationally and for transportation. But I had a problem if I was going to ride my bike more, and it came in the shape of 3 small people.

The kid problem

You see, I had 3 small people under the age of 5 to take care of and not only did they need to be transported, but I needed to have the energy to deal with them. After a lengthy internet search, a cargo bike was selected to transport them. But I didn’t live super close to town, and there were some big hills in the way. I didn’t think I could do it. I could barely pedal the bike up the 1st hill out of the driveway. This is where the electric assist kit transformed this into a realistic solution.
With my kit, I can pedal the bike even with 3 kids or a week’s worth of groceries, over 12 miles of hilly terrain. I can do it every day and it doesn’t take forever or leave me sweaty and exhausted. It’s become a realistic and competitive alternative to the car. And in fact, it’s become the preferred option most of the time as everyone enjoys riding the bike more than riding the car, especially Mom!

Setting up this bike actually was a life changing experience for me, so I started a bike shop to help other people realize their own dreams of using their car less and their bikes more. Electric assist has been a big part of this. We help a lot of people like myself who want to electrify cargo bikes. But we also help a lot of commuters with distances of over 3 miles to go. Some people are even riding 20 miles each way, and the electric assist just makes this commute much faster and more do-able. Instead of bike commuting one day a week, they’re doing it 3 or 5 days. We’ve also helped people with disabilities, people who are out of shape, and people who just want to have more fun riding their bikes. It’s been a pleasure watching all of these people dust off bikes and leave their cars in the garage. In my book, anything that enables people to do that is worth doing.
Would it be “better” if these people were able to bike under their own power without the assist? Maybe. But consider again this fact. The energy used by a typical electric bike is about 15 watt-hours (wh) per mile. The energy used by a typical car is 1,580 wh per mile. That means that you can ride your electric bike for 20 miles and use less energy than it would take to drive your car 0.25 mile. That’s a pretty startling statistic.

The adoption of electric bikes

Over the past 20 years, electric bike technology has made huge strides to where it is generally reliable and easy to use. This is not to say that everything out there is quality – there are still a lot of low quality and low powered bikes out there. But companies manufacturing the bikes and kits have started paying attention to what consumers want and I think we’ll see considerable weeding out of the stuff that is not worth it.
One of the biggest barriers to electric bikes in the marketplace that I see today is actually the reluctance of independent bike shops to take them on. Your local bike shop employees are probably dominated by hard core bike enthusiasts who wouldn’t consider an electric bike for themselves, and so are not very interested in selling them. I’ve also seen considerable reluctance on the part of mechanical staff to be interested or even willing to work on electric bikes, simply because it’s something pretty different than what they’ve seen before. The door has been left open for new specialty shops focused on electric bikes to pop up, and also for big-box retailers to get into the market. These retailers, in combination with the internet, have served to grow the market considerably. As the products increase in quality (and thus decrease in maintenance and support), and as consumer demand grows, I think local bike shops will come around. This would be a great thing, because local shops will always be the best place to get the service and support that bikes of all types need.
So, will electric bikes become a big part of the bike industry? My answer is, I sure hope so.  The potential they have to encourage and enable people to ride more is huge. Both hard core riders who commute longer distances or are aiming for the car-free lifestyle, and for casual riders who would ride more if it was easier and more convenient. And riding bikes is good for our souls, our communities, and our planet.

This article originally appeared on CommuteByBike on June 2, 2010

Head to Head!

A little friendly competition – the electric Madsen with 150 lbs of cargo versus the lightweight road bike. Short video today for your enjoyment…

I’m sure there are many road warriors out there who will appreciate that the electric bike is not ALWAYS faster. (However, I’d love to see them tote the 3 children and still be that fast – different strokes for different folks).

-Elise

Go By Bike is a daily video series that talks about how to be green by riding more and using your car less, including electric bikes, electric kits, cargo bikes, bike safety, and getting motivated to bike

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Madsen, Big Dummy, or Yuba?

Lately, we’ve had a lot of questions around the idea of which cargo bike is the best. In my experience, each one of them has advantages and disadvantages, both in utility, style, and type of load. Finding the right bike depends on how you’re planning to use it. If you get the right one, you’ll use it a lot. If you don’t, you’ll probably wonder why so many people rave about these and lament the money you spent!

Watch the video for some comparison of these three cargo bikes. There are many other bikes out there now, and other options – best saved for another video.

Add your comment below!

-Elise

Go By Bike is a daily video series that talks about how to be green by riding more and using your car less, including electric bikes, electric kits, cargo bikes, bike safety, and getting motivated to bike

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What can you do with a bike?

One of the cool things about the internet is all of the cool posts people put up about all kinds of unusual things! And one of the cool things about cargo bikes is all the cool uses people are putting them to. Beyond the typical “mini van” or “pick up ” uses, there are a bunch of people doing fun bike-based businesses. What a great idea!

These are just a few businesses I came across, so let me know what you’ve found! Post a link below.

Mattress delivery:  http://bikeportland.org/2010/05/17/need-a-mattress-get-it-delivered-by-bike/

Soup: http://www.cargobikecult.com/?p=135

Bike Repair: http://www.cargobikecult.com/?p=229

Ride on!

-Elise

Go By Bike is a daily video series that talks about how to be green by riding more and using your car less, including electric bikes, electric kits, cargo bikes, bike safety, and getting motivated to bike

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How to keep the Kiddos Dry on a Rainy Day?

When cycling with kids in tow, most of the time we try to pick good weather. But what do you do if it rains or want to cycle anyway, even if it’s a little wet? In today’s episode of Go By Bike, I give the “high tech” solution that I use (don’t worry, it’s really not that high tech!).

Have you used this solution or others? What do you do about rain?

Leave your comments below.

-Elise

Go By Bike is a daily video series that talks about how to be green by riding more and using your car less, including electric bikes, electric kits, cargo bikes, bike safety, and getting motivated to bike.

If you like this video, please  digg it, stumble upon it, tweet about it or post it to delicious or facebook using one of the links below

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At Cycle 9, we love Surly’s no-nonsense approach to bicycles.  These bikes are not flashy or trendy, but are elegant and refined in their functionality.  Made from CroMoly steel, Surlys are built to last and ride beautifully.

Take the Surly Cross Check, for example.

Surly Cross Check

The versatile Cross Check handles all terrains with ease.  It’s a great commuter bike, offering a fabulously comfortable ride.  After work, go ahead and hit the trails.  You’ll love how this bike handles off-road as well.  Reviewers rave about this bike and for a good reason.  Come on in to see what all the buzz is about!

Another favorite at Cycle 9 is the Big Dummy.  Don’t let the name fool you, this bike isn’t a clunker.  It’s made for hauling a lot of stuff and it does its job gracefully.  Compatible with Xtracycle accessories, the Big Dummy can carry a week’s worth of groceries, an 8 ft ladder, passengers, or almost anything else you can think of – all while riding smoothly.  The options are endless and car-less, which makes this Big Dummy anything but dumb.

Surly Big Dummy

Ok – I quit this gig.  I’m packing up my crap and heading out West.  Peace out amigos!  While you’re watching the evening news, I’ll be riding into the sunset on Surly’s touring bike, the Long Haul Trucker.  Because the Trucker’s frame geometry is designed to carry a lot of stuff, I can make it out to there with everything I need.  The ultra durable components make me confident that my bike won’t let me down on the way.  Once I’ve reached my destination, I’ll still have a great bike to get around town.  Yup, the Long Haul Trucker is my long haul ride.  It can be yours too.  Stop by Cycle 9 to see why it’s one of our best sellers.

Surly Long Haul Trucker